Evaluating Potential Risk of Choking by Laryngeal Ultrasound in Patients With Acute Stroke

Post-stroke dysphagia is a common complication for the stroke patient. It may cause aspiration, poor nutrition or even pneumonia; thus, it is crucial for the physicians to evaluate the swallowing function of the stroke patients. However, the evaluation methods nowadays still have some limitations. Water swallowing test is one of the well-known methods, but the test itself would put the patients at risk of aspiration. Furthermore, in order to increase the sensitivity of the water swallowing test, the amount of the water should also be increased; as a consequence, the risk of aspiration will also increase. Fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of the swallowing and videofluoroscopy have limitations of invasiveness. The laryngeal ultrasound to evaluate the vocal cord movement can be an alternative method, having the characteristics of non-invasiveness and repeat evaluation.

The investigators aim to evaluate the vocal cord movement in patients with acute stroke by ultrasound. The occurrence of choking or aspiration pneumonia will be collected in one year after the index stroke.